Hurricanes-Flyers Preview

Associated Press

1. STREAK AGAINST CANES
The Flyers are 2-0-0 against Carolina this season, out-scoring them, 10 to 4 in the process… The Flyers have also won 10 of their last 11 meetings against the Hurricanes.

2. READ ALL ABOUT IT
Flyers rookie Matt Read is in the midst of a four-game goal-scoring streak in which he has five goals and six points.

3. ON SECOND THOUGHT
The Flyers have recorded a goal in the second period in seven consecutive games and have out-scored their opponent by a 12 to 6 margin in the second frame.

4. Player to watch out for FLYERS: Claude Giroux
Giroux is coming off his second three-point night in his last three games… He has posted seven points in that span (1G-6A) … Against Carolina, Giroux has seven points in just two meetings this year, recording three goals and four assists against the Hurricanes.

5. Player to watch out for HURRICANES: Patrick Dwyer
Dwyer posed the biggest threat to the Flyers in their last meeting scoring two short-handed goals.

GAME PREVIEW

Although the Philadelphia Flyers wasted another strong game from Claude Giroux, chances are they could get another such effort in their next outing.

Giroux has already had two huge performances against the Hurricanes this season, and the Flyers will try for their seventh straight home win in the series Monday night.

Philadelphia (11-5-3) had a three-game win streak snapped with Saturday's 6-4 loss to Winnipeg despite Giroux's three assists. He has seven points in three games and 26 for the NHL's second-highest total.

"Our team's played some pretty good hockey," said coach Peter Laviolette on Sunday. "As much as you'd like to win every game for the rest of the year, it's probably unrealistic, you're going to have speed bumps on the road. I think we'll get back on track tomorrow when we get in front of our fans and get back on the ice."

Giroux had two goals and one assist last Monday in a 5-3 win at Carolina. He also amassed a goal and three assists Oct. 29 in a 5-1 home win over the Hurricanes (7-11-3).

Jaromir Jagr has also shined in this matchup with two goals and two assists in his return to the NHL.

Both Flyers goalies have started once against the Hurricanes this season. Ilya Bryzgalov made 24 saves in last month's win while Sergei Bobrovsky had 17 last week.

Former Flyers goalie Brian Boucher started opposite Bryzgalov last month in his return to Philadelphia and had 29 saves. Boucher entered in relief last week against the Flyers after Cam Ward was pulled for yielding four goals on 17 shots.

Carolina is 0-5-1 in its last six visits to Philadelphia, dropping the last five in regulation. The Flyers have won 11 of the last 12 matchups overall.

The Hurricanes have come up empty in their last 26 power-play chances against the Flyers, who gave up a season-high three goals with the man advantage Saturday.

"Moving on to tomorrow, we've got a big game against Carolina," Laviolette said. "Our penalty kill has been real good for us. We've done a better job of a lot of different things, taking care of the puck, staying out of the box. It didn't go our way last night, and we're looking forward to tomorrow."

Carolina struggled against the NHL points leader Sunday, but ended a three-game slide with a 3-2 home win despite two goals from Toronto's Phil Kessel.

The Hurricanes are 1-3-0 playing the second half of back-to-back games, but believe fatigue won't be a problem because of an early start time Sunday that will allow them to get to Philadelphia in good shape.

"We'll be able to get in tonight and settle down a little bit, and get a regular sleep and good meals tomorrow, (if) guys need to do their game-day warmup, they got lots of time to do that and no excuses, come out ready, we get lots of rest," defenseman Jay Harrison said. "So we'll be ready to go tomorrow."